Weekend Rewind: Stanford wins women’s NCAA title, Mexican final set and more

Stanford's women's soccer team has completed its climb up the NCAA ladder. Finally.

After falling in the national title game in each of the last two seasons, Stanford held off Duke to capture the 2011 title with a 1-0 victory in Kennesaw, Ga., on Sunday.

Teresa Noyola scored the game-winner in the 53rd minute and was named College Cup MVP. The achievement caps off a stellar career for her and the rest of Stanford's seniors, who compiled a 95-4-4 record over the last four seasons, including an undefeated 25-0-1 campaign this season. The only blemish this year was a scoreless draw at Maryland on Aug. 26.

Here are other weekend results spanning the world's top leagues:

TIGRES, SANTOS LAGUNA SET FOR MEXICAN FINAL

U.S. defender Jonathan Bornstein hasn't featured all season for Tigres UANL, but he can still claim silverware with his team on the cusp of a championship.

Tigres advanced to the Mexican Apertura final by riding a Manuel Lopez own goal to a 1-0 victory over Queretaro on Sunday. That result, combined with a scoreless draw in the opening leg, put Tigres through on a 1-0 aggregate triumph.

Their opposition in the final will be Santos Laguna, which capped off a wild series with Morelia by taking a 3-2 victory in the second leg to force a 4-4 aggregate tie. Santos Laguna, which led the second leg 3-0 before Angel Sepulveda made things interesting with goals in the 74th and 86th minutes, advanced because it was the higher seed, which is the tiebreaker.

The two-legged Apertura final kicks off on Thursday with Santos Laguna hosting the first leg. The return leg is slated for Sunday.

By reaching the final, both teams cemented their places in the 2012-2013 CONCACAF Champions League.

SOUTH AMERICAN TITLES DECIDED

Three South American titles were decided over the weekend, with Brazil's Corinthians, Argentina's Boca Juniors and Uruguay's Nacional de Montevideo winning championships.

Corinthians captured its fifth Campeonato Brasileiro by playing Palmeiras to a scoreless draw and fending off Vasco de Gama to finish two points clear of their closest challenger. The Brazilian power dedicated the championship to former star player Socrates, who passed away over the weekend at age 57.

Boca Juniors retook its place atop the Argentine mountain by clinching the Apertura championship with a couple of games remaining in the season, putting the finishing touches on the crown with a 3-0 win over Banfield.

Meanwhile, in Uruguay, Nacional de Montevideo won the Apertura crown with a 1-0 victory over Liverpool.

And in Europe:

ENGLAND

Manchester City maintained it's high-scoring ways by thrashing Norwich City and keeping its five-point edge atop the league table. Ayegbeni Yakubu claimed some of the spotlight for himself, though, with a four-goal outing for Blackburn.

Newcastle 0, Chelsea 3

Blackburn 4, Swansea City 2

Manchester City 5, Norwich City 1

Queens Park Rangers 1, West Brom 1

Tottenham 3, Bolton 0

Wigan 0, Arsenal 4

Aston Villa 0, Manchester United 1

Everton 0, Stoke City 1

Wolverhampton 2, Sunderland 1

GERMANY

Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Monchengladbach couldn't snap their tie atop the Bundesliga table and played to a draw, paving the way for Bayern Munich to reclaim first place in the league with a thumping of Werder Bremen.

Bayer Leverkusen 2, Hoffenheim 0

Bayern Munich 4, Werder Bremen 1

Freiburg 1, Hannover 96 1

Kaiserslautern 1, Hertha Berlin 1

Wolfsburg 2, Mainz 05 2

Borussia Monchengladbach 1, Borussia Dortmund 1

Stuttgart 2, FC Cologne 2

Hamburg SV 2, FC Nuremberg 0

Schalke 04 3, FC Augsburg 1

ITALY

Inter Milan's struggles continue after a wild, 1-0 home loss to Udinese in which both teams had players sent off yet both missed penalty kicks in the final four minutes. Julio Cesar robbed Antonio Di Natale from the spot, but Inter couldn't cash in for a late equalizer, with Giampaolo Pazzini firing his PK attempt over the bar.

Genoa 0, AC Milan 2

Inter Milan 0, Udinese 1

Napoli 4, Lecce 2

Catania 0, Cagliari 1

Bologna 1, Siena 0

Chievo Verona 0, Atalanta 0

Fiorentina 3, Roma 0

Juventus 2, Cesena 0

Parma 0, Palermo 0

SPAIN

Barcelona and Real Madrid both hit their stride ahead of this weekend's Clasico, with both turning in complete performances in routs of lesser opponents. Madrid is nursing a three-point edge over Barcelona, though Cristiano Ronaldo & Co. have a game in hand.

Sporting Gijon 0, Real Madrid 3

Racing Santander 1, Villarreal 0

Barcelona 5, Levante 0

Valencia 2, Espanyol 1

Atletico Madrid 3, Rayo Vallecano 0

Real Sociedad 3, Malaga 2

Osasuna 2, Real Betis 1

Mallorca 1, Athletic Bilbao 1

Granada 1, Real Zaragoza 0

FRANCE

There was no change at the top of the table as all four of the top teams in Ligue 1 came away with high-scoring victories. Montpellier remains three points clear of Paris-St. Germain, five clear of defending champion Lille and seven ahead of Lyon.

8 Responses to Weekend Rewind: Stanford wins women’s NCAA title, Mexican final set and more

Thanks for giving some column space to the women’s final. I hope that one of the networks picks up the NCAA finals next year – having to follow the action on match-tracker (no ESPNU or ESPN3) was a drag.

you haven’t seen Santos play then, 8 goals in 4 games this post-season and they have the most goals scored in CCL with 18+ this season. Tigres destroyed pacha 4-0 in the quarter-final. How is Mexican soccer offensive, you obviously don’t know much about it.

This is a case of homonyms getting the message or mixed up and misconstrued.

I could be wrong but I don’t think soccerhorn meant to say that Mexican Soccer is offensive to him as in it might of offended him or he feels it offend fans of the game….

I think he actually meant to say that the Mexican Soccer Playoffs recent scores reflect a good example of Mexican Soccer being very hard fought defensive battles of good goal defending in the sport of Soccer.
And that maybe is more like it’s not so much an all out offense ( as in scoring goals) type of league, maybe just…

offensive as in with a high tendency to attack and try to create goal scoring chances a lot?
Just my 2 cents…

Nothing about any of the smaller schools championships? Ohio Wesleyan just won there second mens soccer national championship in San Antonio. This win giving legendary head coach and past NSCAA President Jay Martin his record 608 win. This is the most by a coach in all divisions of college soccer…… and nothing here?